Utagawa Toyohiro (1773-1828)
Two elegant ladies and a girl walking past a pine tree. The sword and the covered naginata, which they carry, could indicate that the scene is was parody (mitate) of a daimyo’s traveling escort.
Signature: Toyohiro ga
Censor: Kiwame
Publisher: Nishimuraya Yohachi (Eijudô), Edo
Date: c. 1801-05
Format: Vertical Oban, 37 x 23,5 cm
Fine impression, the colours partly faded, but still good. Age patina with a little soiling and minimal creasing traces, two small restored areas in the kimono seam at lower right. Unbacked. Still very good overall condition.
From a so far unidentified multi-sheet composition (probably triptych), the other sheets not known. For this print see Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, ex Denman Waldo Ross Coll., No. 1928.99.
Toyohiro is particularly praised for his aristocratic depictions of women, often reminiscent of Utamaro in their elegance. He created some stylistically similar triptychs, to be seen in the collection of the MFA Boston, among them one published by the same publisher (No. 06.706-8, also ex Coll. Denman Waldo Ross).
sold